Congratulations to Tread Athlete Rob Kaminsky, who signed with the Phillies and will report to their big league alternate site!

A look at our process with an athlete who has already had some success at the major league level:

Rob came to us in November 2020 wanting to get back to his peak velocity from the 2018-2019 season (touching 96). Something we noticed immediately was that Rob had shortened his arm action and was getting a little “pushy” as he got into full layback.

For a guy like Rob who throws naturally from a low ¾ arm slot, this can negatively affect not only velocity, but also movement profile.
Rob’s 2020 fastball was right below league average in vertical break (average lefty 15.79” VB, Rob was 13.24”).

While increasing vertical break is a common recommendation for fastballs, for Rob that would mean getting closer to league average (the dreaded “dead zone” for a fastball; 1:30 spin direction for a RH pitcher, 10:30 for a LH pitcher).

What we did with Rob was actually encourage him via drillwork and verbal cueing to get closer to his natural ¾ arm slot which took him even further away from a league average fastball (reduced vertical break, increased horizontal break).

When we’re working with pitch profiles, a good rule of thumb is that a pitch that is average in movement profile is bad (hitters see it often, so it’s easy to hit).

Getting Rob back to his natural arm action had the added benefit of improving velo in a bullpen setting (averaged 87mph in offseason bullpens in 2019, averaged 91mph by the end of 2020 offseason). Rob has also improved command drastically, which he credits to Tread drill work.

*Like a lot of high level guys, Rob gets a good boost from the adrenaline of a game setting. His bullpens average 3-5mph slower than in game velocities. So 90-92 in a bullpen for Rob is in the game!*

Excited for what 2021 holds for Rob with the Phils!